The Catholic Church and the northern Italian city of Ferrara are making their peace with Antonio Vivaldi nearly 300 years after the city’s archbishop effectively canceled the staging of one of his operas, sending the famed Baroque composer into debt for his final years in exile.
According to historians, when Cardinal Tommaso Ruffo banned Vivaldi from Ferrara, it effectively meant the cancellation of the scheduled 1739 Carnival production of his “Il Farnace,” which had already enjoyed success in Italy and beyond. Ruffo’s reason? Vivaldi, an ordained Catholic priest, had stopped celebrating Mass and was said to be in a relationship with one of his singers, Anna Giro.
Vivaldi went into debt and died in 1741 in Vienna. Only after his manuscripts were rediscovered did he earn posthumous fame for “The Four Seasons” and other concertos.